Category: CHRONICLE COLUMNS
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You’re only as good as your last outing – 24/12/24
There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Lisa has entered a talent contest and, aiming to be helpful, Homer offers to be his daughter’s manager. But when he predictably ends up making a hash of his job and she fires him, he gets his own back by going to work with her main rival,…
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You need the plough shined up to turn your best furrow – 17/12/24
At the time my brother began working for a local farmer – either before I was born or very shortly thereafter – when it came to ploughing, the process was slow, arduous and highly labour intensive. With fields having to be marked out, just as you would in your vegetable garden at home. This, essentially,…
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Missed opportunities and others to be explored – 4/12/24
“All this talk of getting old is getting me down my Lord” is the opening line of ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ by The Verve. Regardless of whether one likes the band or, indeed, what thoughts might be about the statement in the song title, the declaration in the opening line has been hitting yours truly…
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Why always Meath? – 11/11/24
It would appear the old adage about never seeing a bookmaker on a bicycle is indeed correct. I will openly admit that from this seat the odds before Sunday’s Leinster Club SFC encounter between Dunshaughlin and St Loman’s of Mullingar were unfairly lopsided in favour of the Westmeath kingpins – with the blue and white…
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Small and mighty often does the trick – 4/11/24
While forever mindful that repetition is one of the greatest foibles in this business, the stance will be maintained that if a point or subject area remains relevant, it merits mention again. So please stay with me here. A few short weeks ago, homage was paid to the Dunsany club when they pulled off what…
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Split season dominated by housekeeping – 27/10/24
Joe Biden withdrew from the US Presidential Election on June 27th. By then, the All Ireland SHC was down to its final four. Jump on a month, and, by July 27th, the boys from the Co Armagh had 24 hours to wait before being reunited with Sam Maguire after a 22 year separation. Seven weeks…
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There’ll be weeks like this – 20/10/24
“When it’s not always raining, there’ll be days like this, when there’s no one complaining, there’ll be days like this, when everything falls into place at the flick of a switch, I just have to remember, there’ll be days like this”… Colm O’Rourke quoted the above Van Morrison chorus at the beginning of his piece…
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Win at all costs can have more than one meaning – 13/10/24
The first four words in the above headline were often levelled at the great Meath teams of the 1980s and early ‘90s as a means of pouring scorn on the deeds of Sean Boylan and his mighty men. Utter bovine excrement of course. Those teams contained some of the finest players ever to grace Croke…
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Horse racing needs to take a right look at itself – 6/10/24
When Noel Meade started training in 1971, he did so almost if not exclusively on the Flat. On the reasoning behind his subsequent switch to National Hunt, he stated, in so many words, that trying to compete against the yards who had the backing of the Arab owners at the time, and Coolmore wasn’t viable.…
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Robbie Brennan completes a unique treble for Dunboyne – following Sean Boylan and Andy McEntee as Meath manager – 27/9/24
From as far back as when I was in Primary school, my powers of recall were often a topic of discussion. Especially if the subject matter was either sport or farming related. Even though to some of the assembled audience, mention of either would constitute fountains of useless information. Be that as it may, I…